How much of the world’s population is fully vaccinated?

As countries around the world urge their citizens to get vaccinated against Covid-19, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has revealed nearly two-thirds of the global population is fully vaccinated.

Speaking at the recent Commonwealth foreign ministers meeting, WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said: “More than 60% of the world’s population has now completed a primary course of vaccination against Covid-19.”

According to Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Malta and Samoa are the only two countries to be fully vaccinated. The United Arab Emirates is close with 98% of its population vaccinated.

African countries are among the least vaccinated, Seychelles the highest at 82% and Mozambique follows with 68%. It lists SA at 32%.

At the start of the vaccine rollout, government set a target to jab 40-million people, or 67% of the population. In March, health minister Joe Phaahla said the target was 70%.

The minister said then fully vaccinated individuals stood at about 17-million, or about 43% of the population. 

According to the latest statistics from government's vaccination dashboard, 18.3m adults or 46% of the total adult population is fully vaccinated.

“The biggest drawback is the young population between 18 and 34 years. We need at least five million more of this age group vaccinated so they can boost their coverage to at least 60%, which will also push the national coverage closer to at least 60%,” Phaahla said.

While there are many successes, Ghebreyesus warned there has been a recent increase in transmission of the coronavirus in many countries.

He said testing and sequencing has “dropped markedly around the world”, blinding authorities to the evolution of the virus.

He warned of possible further variants of the virus in future, and stressed the pandemic is not over.

“The risk of a new and more dangerous variant emerging remains very real. Although we have made great progress and have many reasons for optimism, the perception that the pandemic is over is understandable, but misguided. Ending the acute phase of the pandemic must remain our collective priority.”

Support independent journalism by subscribing to the Sunday Times. Just R20 for the first month.